17 December 2013

1. Snow tires for my bike
2. Friendly bike store owner who installed snow tires at no extra charge
3. Have not fallen off bike once since obtaining snow tires
4. Eating pomelo
5. Pomelo tea
6. Seeing The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with friends and colleagues from the Physics department (Dec. 14, 2013)
7. Mike giving me a ride to the movie
8. One of the students sharing his popcorn and almonds at the movie
9. My wife's phone interview for a teaching position
10. Learning about the differences between white-tailed deer and mule deer
11. Our fourth anniversary (Dec. 12, 2013)
12. Getting a great deal on a used computer and supporting a good cause at the same time
13. The ability to have so many things delivered to our door
14. Opportunity to travel to Japan in January
15. Playing in my first band concert in several years
16. Good conversation with Bob over Skype
17. Having fun at the white elephant gift exchange
18. Meeting Rafal's wife and children at the party
19. Getting a geeky magnetic poetry kit in the gift exchange
20. Lots of good food at the gift exchange
21. Biking home with my wife from the gift exchange
22. Successfully manually converting a proposal draft from Word to LaTex
23. The Minnesota Public Radio online Christmas station

Relevant Quotes

"This is what the LORD says: 'If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time…If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant'" - Jeremiah 33:20, 25-26 (NIV)

"It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out."- Proverbs 25:2 (ESV)

"The scientific ethos, moreover, is...the will to be obedient to the truth, and, as such, it embodies an attitude which belongs to the essential decisions of the Christian spirit." - Pope Benedict XVI